Glover creates hit show with Atlanta

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Liam Belan, Staff Writer

Most people know Donald Glover as the man behind the talented musician, Childish Gambino.

Glover’s many other talents often go under the radar, including his acting and writing for his FX show, Atlanta.

In the show, Glover plays the character Earn, a father dealing with relationship problems with the mother of his daughter and the struggles of providing for himself and his daughter.

Insert Alfred “Paper Boi” Miles, cousin of Earn and an up and coming rapper in the Atlanta music scene. The show begins with Earn fresh out of college — having left Princeton — and sensing potential opportunity and wealth for his cousin.

Being broke and homeless, Earn comes back to visit Alfred and discusses the idea of managing his cousin. After extensive convincing from Earn, Alfred appoints Earn as his manager. The rest of the season describes Paper Boi’s ascension through the Atlanta rap scene while also pointing out issues related to being black in America.

Glover mixes humor with social commentary and creates a brilliant show that leaves viewers laughing and questioning society at the same time.

During one episode, Earn finds himself in a police station waiting for his bail money. Earn witnesses a mentally ill man drink from a toilet — to everyone’s amusement — and proceed to spit it in a police officer’s face.

The man gets beaten mercilessly by police as Earn asks himself: Why is this man not getting any help? This perfectly describes Atlanta: a bizarre, hilarious scene that ends up questioning societal norms and actions.

Glover slightly changes his approach in the newest season of the show, dubbed Robbin’ Season. Season two follows Atlanta during the winter months approaching Christmas.

From the jump, there is an “everybody has to eat” mentality that persists through the whole season. Every episode features at least one robbery, both physically and mentally at times.

There is everything from Paper Boi getting robbed by fans to a terrifying experience involving Darius, Alfred’s hilarious right hand man, and a new character named Teddy Perkins.

That episode, simply titled Teddy Perkins, follows Darius on his quest to get a free piano from a mysterious seller. Darius meets the owner of the piano, Teddy Perkins, an extremely awkward man who clearly experiences some mental problems due to his abusive upbringing. In the end, Darius ends up with no piano and a traumatizing experience. This episode has blown up all over the internet; a quick search of “Teddy Perkins” on Google or YouTube will bring up several theories and pieces of analysis regarding the episode.

Once again, Glover paints a clear message about a prevalent issue in society. Atlanta uses a blend of creative writing and jokes, extensive character and relationship development, along with relevant social commentary, and all of it makes this show must-watch television.